The popular news is late to the game — again. However there’s a nice little article in the NY Times today about cashmere commuters and the new era of bicycles as practical transportation.

I’ll add the link here and just say that although my cost of $860 for the Old Dutch may seem “hefty”, my Blue Beauty will last about 17 times longer than some yuppie’s new Land Rover (with apologies to my uncle who was in charge of steel production of Ford until the 70’s: isn’t Land Rover a division of Ford now?). And I’ll add the rhetorical question: Why is it so rare for anyone to focus on the price tag on a high-end ‘sport’ oriented bike?

EDITED late evening to add:
Today was the first day that I smelled the smell of warm ground/earth with the fragrance of pine needles from last fall’s drop being heated up *just that much* by the sun. Much as I favour public transit, I would not have experienced that lovely first-really-warm-day smell if I’d been on the bus.

Tomorrow I aim to ride the Iron Horse Trail down to Victoria Lake in Kitchener to meet with colleagues for a drink… then it will be back to work for the whole week-end.

Anyway, these are just my little observations about the joys — rather than the sacrifices — of a more environmentally friendly approach to life.

Next week, more long these same lines of little environmental choices we can make for the good that do not result in feelings of deprivation, nor in terrible hits to the pocket-book, I’ll post about my favourite local service/market: Pfenning’s Organic.

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I don’t know either, Anna… but I won’t judge them in print for whatever their internal motivations are.
The NYT article’s fairly transparent suggestion that commuter cycling is for privileged yuppies is realy irksome though. Before the Blue Beauty I would spend about $150 a month on a combination of bus and taxi fare. Now I spend about $20 in a heavy-use month, and in many months: nothing. So: savings this year roughly $1300, and I’m not a person who has to go to the office every single day. Others would save even more on a 5-day schedule than I do on my research-from-home schedule.